Re:Schools should be using open source software
by goosedragons on Monday May 30, 2022 @05:17PM
(#31563707)
I don't think this is entirely true for programs that rely on significant network effects. Photoshop and MS Office are entrenched because they are so widely used and anything other than absolutely perfect file compatibility with their formats is deemed trash. MS knows this and that's why the Office file format is such a complicated bloated mess of a "standard". Since nobody else can do it "right" everybody keeps picking MS office...
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Re:Schools should be using open source software
by AussieWog93 on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @08:02AM
(#31568558)
I wouldn't consider MS Office "entrenched" any more, at least for the under-30s crowd. Word has been largely replaced by Google Docs, and Excel is slowly being phased out in favour of far more powerful programming languages like Python and R (but is still definitely dominant; I bought an office key mainly for that one app). Outlook has been replaced by web-based services like Gmail.
I remember being surprised when a couple of older people I was building computers for asked me to put Office on them. There was only one guy I knew from my generation who still used it.